Farm Salmon
Are Now Most Contaminated Food on Shelf(from October 23,
2002)

The Sunday Herald
reports farmed salmon are the most contaminated food sold by British
supermarkets, according to a new analysis by government advisors. Among
100 different worst-case examples of fruit, vegetables, meat and other
foodstuffs polluted by pesticides over the past five years, salmon comes
out the most contaminated. Every sample of farmed salmon in the batch
tested by scientists was found to contain at least three toxic chemicals.

The revelation comes
as the Scottish salmon-farming industry faces its biggest, and potentially
most damaging, nationwide protest to date. Millions of salmon, fed and
reared in cages at the 350 fish farms around Scotland's coastline, are
sold throughout the UK. Virtually all fresh salmon sold in British supermarkets
is farmed.

The new analysis
of pesticide contamination was carried out by the government's Committee
on Toxicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment.
The committee's 18 experts were asked to investigate the health implications
of mixtures of different chemicals in food because of growing concern
over possible 'cocktail effects'.

Their report, published
last week, listed all the 'worst-case occurrences of pesticide residues'
in all the food sampled by scientists between 1997 and 2001. Salmon
was the only food in which every sample, from a batch tested in 1997,
contained three pesticides: DDT, dieldrin and hexachlorobenzene.

The committee accepted
that evidence was limited and that some chemical interactions may be
unpredictable, but concluded that there was 'only a very small risk
to human health of the 'cocktail effect' of pesticides'. But this has
been attacked as complacent by environmentalists.

'Farmed salmon is
the worst of the worst of all foodstuffs tested for DDT, dieldrin and
other cancer-causing chemicals . It is a contaminated product' said
Don Staniford, the author of a major critique of the salmon farming
industry.

The salmon-farming
industry argued that DDT and dieldrin, which have long been banned in
most of the world, are pollutants present in most food. Staniford pointed
out, however, that farmed salmon are much more contaminated than wild
salmon.

The latest pesticide
survey by government scientists lends some support to Staniford's view.
Only 25 of 105 samples of imported, canned, wild salmon bought in Britain
between April and December last year contained DDT. By contrast 59 out
of 60 samples of fresh farmed salmon in 2001 contained the pesticide.

Staniford claimed
that this is why supermarkets are reluctant to label salmon as farmed
or wild. Farmed fish are 'cheap and nasty', he said. 'Since wild salmon
contains far fewer toxins, consumers should 'go wild' if eating salmon.'

The 2001 survey
also detected hexa chloro benzene in 23 samples of farmed salmon and
chlordane in 11 samples, as well as pesticides in two samples of organic
salmon. Contaminated salmon were sold at all the major supermarket chains.

Pollutants concentrate
in farmed salmon because they are fed fish pellets and oils that are
themselves contaminated. The salmon-farming industry is currently experimenting
with alternative foods, such as plant oils and proteins. 'However, it
remains the case that the benefits of eating oily fish, such as salmon,
for its Omega-3 essential fatty acids, far outweigh any risk and are
valuable for a range of health conditions including protecting against
heart disease,' said Dr John Webster, technical adviser with Scottish
Quality Salmon.